A month has passed since the relatively uneventful launch of the Socket 2011 based Sandy Bridge-E and X79 Patsberg platform. We gave our Editor's Choice award to the madcap enthusiast oriented ASUS Rampage IV Extreme for its outstanding engineering and overclocking ability, which is a tad expensive for most buyers. Fret not though, because if you're not into setting world records, then the ASUS P9X79 Pro we have here today is the next best thing.

Don't we just love the ASUS boxes? They never fail to use hyperactivity-inducing colours and graphics

Back of box

The Board – Despite being an entry level model, the P9X79 Pro retains the full 8-dimm memory slot configuration that the platform can support. We particularly liked the large heatpipe coolers over the VRMs and X79 PCH, which can get toasty during full load.

Behind

Accessories and Manual

Specifications Table

Specifications

P9X79 PRO

CPU

Supports Intel LGA2011 Processors

Chipset

Intel X79(Patsburg)

Memory

8 x DIMM, Max. 64GB Quad Channel Memory Architecture * Due to OS limitation, when installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows® 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Install a 64-bit Windows® OS when you want to install 4GB or more memory on the motherboard.